Is the Linguistic Content of Speech Less Salient than its Perceptual Features in Autism?

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Järvinen-Pasley, Anna; Pasley, John and Heaton, Pam F.. 2008. Is the Linguistic Content of Speech Less Salient than its Perceptual Features in Autism? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38(2), pp. 239-248. ISSN 0162-3257 [Article]

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-007-0386-0

Abstract or Description

Open-ended tasks are rarely used to investigate cognition in autism. No known studies have directly
examined whether increased attention to the perceptual
level of speech in autism might contribute to a reduced
tendency to process language meaningfully. The present
study investigated linguistic versus perceptual speech
processing preferences. Children with autism and controls
were tested on a quasi-open-format paradigm, in which
speech stimuli contained competing linguistic and perceptual information, and could be processed at either level.

Relative to controls, children with autism exhibited superior perceptual processing of speech. However, whilst their tendency to preferentially process linguistic rather than perceptual information was weaker than that of controls, it was nevertheless their primary processing mode. Implications for language acquisition in autism are discussed.

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Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-007-0386-0